YOU can’t beat a curry on a cold winter’s night.
A hidden gem in the Attadale burbs is Guru Spices on Moreing Road.
It sounds like it should be Spicy Guru or Spicy Hoodoo Gurus or something like that, but it’s Guru Spices.
Anyway, I’m not complaining – the food is top notch.
Hailing from the UK, where eating curry, along with soccer hooliganism, drinking super strength lager, and getting sun burn, is almost a national past-time, I’ve struggled to find a restaurant in Perth that matches the curries of my youth.
It usually comes down to the sauce – it’s not thick, rich or spicy enough.
So I was happy to stumble upon Guru Spices a few years back.
Their menu has a fantastic range of meat, seafood and vegetarian curries, as well as extensive vegan options.
There was everything from lamb pasanda and chicken do pyaza to malai prawn and goat biryani.
There was also a good selection of breads from their tandoori clay oven. Not just the ubiquitous plain and garlic naan, but all kinds of varieties.
Overall, a great menu that just didn’t trot out the usual suspects.
Talking of usual suspects, my young kids can only really handle a mild butter chicken ($22).
But this was a superior version. Plenty of large cubes of tender chicken in a thick golden-orange sauce.
I had a sneaky taste and the chicken, done over the coals, had a lovely smoky tang.
The sauce was just right the consistency and not sickly.
The heat was spot on and while my young kids had slightly-inflamed cherry lips, they finished it off.
I was busy tucking into my prawn masala ($24.50).
Wow. Loads of tender tail-on prawns in a rich tomato and onion sauce with just the right amount of cream.
Some places skip on veg, but this curry had lots of green and red peppers and soft onion.
The peppers added a nice texture and sweetness, and the sauce had a hefty punch of garlic.
Prawns can be hard to cook in curries – they easily get rubbery or are upstaged by the heat, but this mild dish let the seafood shine.
The accompany saffron rice ($7.50) was super fluffy and fragrant. Delicious.
Guru Spices gets extra marks for serving keema naan ($6.50).
I hadn’t eaten one in about 30 years – back in the heady days of Cool Britannia and New Labour (whatever happened to that Tony Blair bloke?).
It was a Proustian delight.
A thin layer of spicy lamb mince and peas inside a beautiful light and fluffy naan.
I can’t fault Guru Spices.
It’s so good, if I closed my eyes, I could be back in Old Blighty, feeding my pitbull Special Brew and listening to Oasis.
Guru Spices
88C Moreing Rd, Attadale
guruspices.com.au
by STEPHEN POLLOCK